


The Cop from the Future

by ChangeTheCircumstances



Category: Banlieue 13 (Movies), Le visiteur du futur | Visitor from the Future: Neo Versailles
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dystopia, Gen, M/M, Time Travel, Will probably be violent hence the warning but hard to say, le visiteur du futur AU, may throw some ocs in but i'll try to only do characters from Banlieue 13 or the sequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-13 23:05:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7989478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChangeTheCircumstances/pseuds/ChangeTheCircumstances
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the wall is taken down, both Leïto and Lola think that their burb, and their lives, will start to resemble something akin to normal. However, that idea goes straight out the window when a stranger appears in their lives claiming to tell three truths: 1) he is their friend, 2) they are in danger, and 3) he is from the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Disappearing Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> So I've loved the Banlieue 13 movies and Le Visteur du Futur for forever and I've recently come up with this weird ass AU using both of them. Just for the record, this isn't a crossover, it's more so putting the Banlieue 13 characters into Le Visiteur du Futur's world or something really similar to it.
> 
> I know both fandoms for these are small but if anyone reads this, I hope you enjoy. I'm planning on trying to update weekly for anyone who is interested.
> 
> Also, don't hate me. I know the title is cheesy as hell but I couldn't think of anything else for the moment.

Lola was the first to spot the man. She and her brother were simply sitting on a bench, taking a break from the world, with practically nothing on their minds. Lola had glanced to her right, just barely registering what seemed to be a flash of light. She frowned upon seeing a man that looked like he had either lived under a bridge for five years or was going to some Steampunk convention. It was hard to tell which was more likely.

Besides his clothes, she was able to spot three other interesting tidbits about the man. One, he was bald. Two, his eyes were an incredibly, brilliant blue. And three, he disappeared.

Yes, in those few seconds that Lola glanced over and stared at him, the man was suddenly gone again.

She jumped and hit her brother hard on the arm. “Leïto! Look! Look!” she yelled. However, the words were pointless as it was clear Leïto hadn’t seen a single thing.

“What?” he asked plainly, a small frown on his lips. His muscles had tensed ever so slightly showing his readiness to jump into action if needed.

“The man! He was right there and then he just disappeared!”

Right away, Leïto relaxed again and raised an eyebrow at her. “Your eyes were probably just playing tricks on you. How could a man just disappear? Did he run behind a tree?”

“No he disappeared!” Lola cried. At the appearance of a light smile on his lips, she hit her brother again. “I’m telling the truth.”

“I didn’t say you weren’t,” Leïto defended.

Lola just let out a frustrated groan and let her back fall against the bench again. “Whatever. Just come out and say it. You think you’re little sister is crazy.”

“Hey, not any crazier than me,” chuckled Leïto. He stood up and momentarily stretched before adding, “Let’s go. Huh?”

Lola’s words, no matter how insane, had clearly struck a chord with Leïto. After all, the siblings practically relied on each other and no one else. It didn’t matter if the idea of a disappearing man was illogical. Leïto saw the mere mention of a threatening presence as reason to hurry up and leave.

After the events behind the wall of their Banlieue coming down, there were still threats to be had, even if Leïto and Lola overreacted to most of them. For them, the threats came from gangsters and criminals. It was thanks to Lola and Leïto that one of the biggest names in Banlieue 13 had been taken down. After that, the cops were able to more easily go in and take control of the area, righting things, getting schools and post offices back into place, and finally taking down the wall.

For the better people of their Banlieue, that made them heroes. However, the criminals of the place suddenly found themselves being forced to move their operations or be arrested. Along with a number of other problems popping up for them, it seemed that many were only to happy to firmly place the blame on Leïto’s and Lola’s head. They may have saved their home but both were only too aware of the price on their heads because of it. Even being away from home and simply walking through the public park of Buttes-Chaumont in Paris didn’t take away that feeling of danger.

It was Lola’s second time in Paris, Leïto’s third. Leïto had first gone for a field trip in his primary school before the wall came up. Leïto’s second time, and Lola’s first, had been due to their taking down of Taha, the big name in Banlieue 13. They’d been taken in for questioning and after some distrust from both sides, had eventually come to mutual respect for the other. Leïto had worked with them, helping the police to uncover the more serious cells and ones that would be immediate problems after Taha’s fall.

Now they had come to Paris again but not for more police questioning. Though they had both agreed to stay in their town, they now had a freedom not previously felt. Even if they chose to keep Banlieue 13 as their home, it didn’t mean they couldn’t properly explore and move about the world.

The day had gone extraordinarily well too. Besides Lola’s odd observation, they had been able to relax and enjoy themselves for the majority of it. The day was coming to a close anyways so Lola didn’t argue with her brother as they headed back to the one bus station that would go to their town.

By then, Lola’s mind had already moved to other things and her brother had dropped any possible teasing, though Leïto remained on edge until they were back home.

Home was still the apartment in one of the few standing buildings and the view still resembled that of a dystopia. Things were changing and coming about though. The average person moved more freely, with less fear, clearly not having to worry about stepping into someone else’s territory. Police were actually present in their area now to. A bus system was starting up for taking kids to and from school, and a whole slew of other aspects that made their burb brighter than before.

Of course, Leïto still woke up at the slightest sound and Lola still kept a gun by her bed but things were looking on the up and up.

Nevertheless, the strangeness of Lola’s day did not end once she finally fell asleep. There, she dreamed of a different timeline, one where taking in Taha didn’t solve anything. It wasn’t the first time she had experienced this strange dream of alternate events but there was now an addition to it that she had not expected. The bald man with the blue eyes was present but his showing up wasn’t shocking, at least not during the dream. In fact, the entire fantasy felt more complete now that he was there. She didn’t question his presence until she opened her eyes the next morning, her brow heavily wrinkled as she tried to figure out if the man was more important than simply being some stranger.

The dream of what had alternatively happened with Taha had always felt more like a memory than a made up story, yet this addition of the stranger just confused her more. Not only had he completed the story, filling an empty space Lola hadn’t realized was there before, he also hadn’t been a carbon copy of what she’d seen the day before.

If that had been the case, she could have just chalked it up as her mind trying to flesh out the story with random tidbits of the past day. But the stranger had truly fit into the tale. He had seemed a little younger, and he’d had short hair with a receding hairline. He had worn similar clothes to her brother as well, prison clothes for some odd reason. She remembered watching her brother and the stranger fight, remembered taking the stranger down herself and then there being a sense of crushing relief.

But she couldn’t figure out why.

The thoughts bothered her throughout the morning but thankfully going to work at the market kept her mind away from the intruding feelings. Lola focused on her smiles and polite nods as she slowly counted the minutes until she was off. Leïto would be home a little later due to helping the police with planning the capture of one of the last major gangs in the Banlieue. It would give Lola plenty of time to make dinner, it being her turn that night anyways.

With thoughts firmly set on finishing her shift and figuring out what was for dinner, time passed quickly and soon Lola was shutting down her register and gathering her things to leave. It was still light out but her path home took her through a shadowed alleyway. As always, she remained on guard. The police may have been more abundant and active but Lola was no fool.

Nevertheless, halfway down the alleyway Lola found herself being grabbed even though seconds ago she had known for a fact that she’d been alone. Growing up with Leïto as an older brother, Lola could pick up soft sounds that most weren’t even aware of. She had known for a fact that the section she was walking through was empty and yet here she was being grabbed anyways.

She reacted immediately, going for her gun and pulling it on the guy. Lola would have shot him too except she hesitated upon seeing the face. This gave the man enough time to knock the gun out of her grip.

It was the disappearing stranger. The one from her dream.

“Lola, I don’t have much time. I need you to listen to me.”

The stranger knew her name. Suddenly, going crazy seemed like the only thing that could make since. There were a hundred things that she wanted to ask the guy, if he was even real. However, she focused on the fact that she was stuck in an alley alone with a stranger that had just knocked away her main way of protecting herself. Yeah, she could throw a hard punch but this guy seemed to move like her brother and the only times she could hit Leïto was when he let her.

As this all flashed through her mind, the guy took a step closer. Lola got her hands up and growled out, “You touch me and I’ll scream.”

The man seemed honestly shocked by her words which she didn’t get at all. What did he expect, jumping someone like this?

“You don’t-fuck of course you don’t remember me. You weren’t at the apex,” he muttered. He looked irritated and pissed off but not at her. Lola was so fucking confused.

“What the hell do you want?”

“I’m trying to warn you, alright! Not that it makes a difference if you don’t remember—”

Suddenly his voice and form seemed to almost glitch right in front of her. Lola’s eyes widened even further as his image slowly focused again. The stranger hit some machine on his arm a few times, cursing it before quickly adding, “You and Leïto are in danger ok. I don’t know when they’re coming and this stupid thing isn’t working properly so I can’t stay longer. But you guys can’t trust anyone! You have to—”

And then he was gone again, leaving Lola utterly confused as the hair on the back of her neck stood on end.


	2. His New Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should just call this the exposition chapter haha. Again, I'm betting very few people are actually reading this but for those that do, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks again for reading. I'm also planning out the story so by the next chapter I should have an estimate as to how many chapters this will be.

Damien pulled up his hood and rushed to the nearest wall the moment he was grounded again. He was back in the future, what had become his future, so he needn’t worry about Kruger’s men. They couldn’t go past their own present thanks to their devices. However, there were still zombies, the necrophiliacs, and other detestable creatures about and Damien had no interest in wondering into any of those.

He managed to get back to what had become home. Once the door was securely locked though, he couldn’t bring himself to relax. He needed to fix the time machine as quickly as possible.

Technically.

In reality, he could take as long as he wanted. However, no matter how much effort and time he put into the damn thing, it never seemed to work perfectly. And yes, if he got there to late he could probably go back and overt it but even with machines to control it, time never did seem to perfectly mold to man’s image.

So Damien worked for three hours straight. It wasn’t that long and there were still components that needed to be finished. However, Damien had been awake for about five days and he could tell his focus was starting to slip to a dangerous degree.

If he was being honest with himself though, he had no idea how long it had been. Damien had been all over the place and moving constantly, making it near impossible to keep track of his own personal time. He’d been all over the past, in the time that had once been his present, and even an alternate universe, now destroyed by what Damien had done.

But no one remembered it. Not even Leïto or Lola. It was just Damien.

And Kruger.

There had been his old chief too. He’d been the one to make Damien aware of what was going on. He’d been the original owner of the time machine that Damien now kept on his wrist. He had been the one from the year 3195. Damien had been the cop living in 2403, believing he was doing the right thing, that he was helping people.

He had been working for Kruger as part of the time patrol. His unit’s job had been that of retrieving rogue time travelers, taking them down before they could do damage to the timeline. However, Damien hadn’t been doing that at all. What had really been going on was that thanks to Damien and people like him, Kruger was profiting off of time itself.

Damien hadn’t even thought it possible yet the evidence had been laid out in front of him by his former chief.

Apparently the future was ruined because of what Kruger was doing. Whereas humans had once been among the stars, they now barely got by, scattered and dying. Now Damien was one of those humans, outcast to this dystopian year.

Thankfully, he’d managed to change the course of events so that acid rain no longer existed in this time. The human population had more than doubled and there were towns on the surface. Simply having the proof that his work wasn’t for naught should have been enough.

But it wasn’t. Leïto and Lola no longer remembered who he was and that stung more than he expected.

He’d spent nearly a month with them thanks to his time machine being broken the moment he landed in the early twenty-first century. The agent that came to retrieve him also got the date wrong, hence why Damien had spent so much time with them.

It had always been paramount that time agents not interact with past populations or targets for more than was necessary. Damien had thought it had been to minimize any effect that their traveling might have on the time continuum. Instead, it had been so that Kruger’s men never discovered the truth. And that had been that the people Damien took and locked up weren’t rogue time travelers at all. They were meant to stay safely tucked away, ripped from their time and thus, actually ruining history farther down the line while Kruger wrought billions of dollars from the following destruction.

But Damien had spent time with his target upon realizing that he couldn’t get back right away. It was enough time to realize that Leïto wasn’t some rogue time travel. He belonged in the twenty-first century and thanks to Damien’s interference, so much could have been destroyed.

So Damien went about trying to fix the damage he had done and by doing so, he came to know both Lola and Leïto. They managed to take down a big time gangster, caused laws to be created, changed the history of Banlieue 13 (or perhaps righted it). Damien had the chance to experience the aftershocks too; both the larger ones that consisted of waves of police coming to the Banlieue and the act of the walls coming down, along with smaller actions such as healing from wounds and being there as the drugs that had been pumped into Lola thanks to Taha were flushed from her system.

Once Damien realized that Leïto was in his right time, he should have distanced himself and waited for backup to come. After all, at the time he didn’t think anything of it. So there was one mistake. At least he had caught it before he locked Leïto up forever. However, he had felt partially responsible for Lola’s and Leïto’s failure in originally attempting to take down Taha. He had reasoned that it was his duty as not only an officer of the law (no matter his time) but also as a human to help Leïto.

And in doing so he had gained two unexpected friends.

Damien knew that having a friendship across time wouldn’t work. There was no way time travel for simple ‘enjoyment’ would be allowed. Yet he had also thought that everything was right with the world again and that Leïto and Lola would be able to live the life they were meant to. Instead his chief had come forward with the knowledge that Leïto’s selection had been no accident, thus turning Damien’s world upside down.

And as if to make matters worse, Damien’s attempt to fix what he had done failed. Down the road it still resulted in fear and discrimination and bombings, all the way up to the acid rain in 3195.

So Damien had gone back and created a paradox. At the time, it had seemed to be his only option yet now the consequences were falling into place.

Kruger’s greedy ass had been there when Damien changed history so drastically that time couldn’t adapt around it, utterly destroying an alternate reality. His chief had been there too, trying to stop Kruger from stopping Damien. Because of that, the three of them of them remembered the alternate reality, even if no one else did.

Well. It had been the three of them.

With time completely reworked, Kruger had killed his chief and Damien had fled back to the future. He’d thought about going back and trying to stop it but doing so would create another paradox. One that was undeniably smaller compared to what Damien had done but from what he had gathered from collected data, the time continuum probably couldn’t even take that.

Time had been stretched thin, had been cracked and ruined, and now any shove could rip it apart. What would happen if time was destroyed? Would it be chaos? Every little moment happening all at once? Or would it be darkness? Inky and black and just nothing?

Damien didn’t know and the stakes were to high to risk it.

Nevertheless, he did know he had to keep Leïto and Lola alive, hence why he was trying to get back to the twenty-first century. According to history, they would live on to lead their community. They would become shining examples of how the people should be treated. But if Kruger managed to send people back, kill them off, possibly even make it look like some thug from their home had done it, any number of things could happen.

Distrust and discrimination of the poorer districts would reappear. Perhaps even the wall would go back up. And then all of Damien’s actions would be erased again. Things would go back to how they had been, unjust and wrong.

So Damien needed to firstly make sure Lola and Leïto remained alive and safe. Then came the task of taking down Kruger. Of course, just those two thoughts didn’t quite count as a plan. In fact, this was possibly the first time Damien didn’t have a plan. He had to fix the time machine to the best of his ability. He at least knew that. But from there, anything went.

He couldn’t go to his old time and check to see what Kruger was up to. Damien would probably light up all over their sensors with a giant target on his head. And again, his time machine wasn’t exactly the most accurate thing. Getting back to 3195 was easy thanks to it being from that time. Going to the twenty-first century was more accurate thanks to just how often the device had been there. Any other time, just like everything else in Damien’s current life, was unknowable.

All this kept Damien feeling unbalanced and put off. So much so that he didn’t even fall asleep right away despite days of being awake.

He lay in what most would consider a rat’s nest but what the people of the thirty-second century called a bed. He stayed completely still, hoping that it would help, yet he laid there for what felt like ages. Memories and thoughts and feelings of betrayal and hatred and disgust and wonder and anything in between continued to flit through Damien’s head. He just couldn’t shut off no matter how much his body ached or how heavy his eyelids were with exhaustion.

So he continued to lay on his back until it was just to much. Damien sat back up, going to work on the time machine again. Even with exhaustion growing more prominent by the minute, he continued on until he was finished. Only then did his mind finally seem to shut down with one of his many goals finally complete.


	3. Dreams of the Unknown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for being a day late. Still planning it out but I think it will be about 20 to 25 chapters as of now. Hopefully I'll have a more solid number next time. Thanks again for any who are reading this and for the kudos!
> 
> *** Also I did change the chapter title on 9/25/16 after going back and looking at it and deciding it needed something different.

Leïto didn’t scare easily. In fact, it had been a long time since he’d truly felt fear of any kind. But he was easily shocked.

He often claimed he was a realist, that by believing in the lowest of people one was never surprised. However, if he was being more honest, he did believe that humans were innately good. He believed that there were bad people that did bad things, but sometimes very good people did incredibly bad things. Such things happened in Banlieue all the time. Or at least they used to. Now that order was coming back, the good was beginning to outshine the bad.

Nevertheless, it was Leïto’s belief in others that led him to be easily shocked. It always seemed there was some scumbag that just had to sink lower than everyone else. Yet for once, it was not some horrible action that left him stunned, frozen to the ground with his lips parted. Nothing in his life could have made him so immobile. Nothing except a man that appeared out of nothing.

Any other type of threat and Leïto would be launching himself forward either to fight or get away. Yet this made him wonder if he’d been hit in the head one to many times.

“You’re in danger Leïto. Get somewhere safe now. I’m going to go tell Lola—”

Once the man started talking, Leïto seemed to be able to move again and started forward. He didn’t know who this guy thought he was but he sure as hell was going to get some answers. However, before anything more could happen, the man was cut off and disappeared again. Not a trace was left and Leïto just barely kept himself from stumbling forward as he quickly did a 360 on the empty street. However, he was alone again.

Partly wondering if he had hallucinated it all, Leïto focused on the fact that the guy had said his sister’s name, had mentioned going to her. He had no idea what the man’s game was but for all Leïto knew, he was the danger. Judging by the time, Lola should have been back at the apartment for the past hour.

Suddenly, Leïto was running through the streets, taking all the shortcuts he knew to get back home. He had no idea how the mystery man traveled but he was betting that he would get there before Leïto did. Just the thought of Lola being attacked made his step quicken all the more. However, once he made it home he turned back to stealth.

Inching forward, Leïto snuck in through a window and crept forward. He didn’t hear anything so he slowly moved out of his own bedroom and into a hallway—

Only for a gun to be shoved in his face.

Leïto jerked forward but before the gun could be fired, or he succeeded in batting it out of the hands that held it, he realized the person behind the barrel was Lola.

“You idiot! I could have shot you!” she yelled out.

“And why did you have a gun out? What happened?” Leïto asked, deciding to put the near fatal slip up on both their parts behind them.

“I…I was warned that we were in danger,” Lola said, though her voice suggested she didn’t quite believe it.

“You mean he was here? Where did he go? He couldn’t have gotten far,” he tried to rationalize, quickly looking around. However, Lola’s confused face had him staying in their hallway rather than running off to look for the guy. “What?”

“How do you know we’re talking about the same guy?” asked Lola.

“A stranger appeared out of nowhere. Just like what you said in the park.”

Lola looked shocked as if she had finally come to terms with the idea that her mind had been playing tricks on her. However, she quickly latched onto Leïto’s statement as the reassurance that she wasn't crazy. She asked, “Maybe it was the same one! What did he look like?”

“Bald and blue eyed. Really shitty clothes.”

“That’s him!” cried Lola. “He visited me earlier today again. He’s the one who warned me we were in danger.”

“Wait, earlier? I saw him less than thirty minutes ago,” exclaimed Leïto. “He said he was going to find you next.”

Lola looked like she was about to argue but then shook her head. “We are literally talking about some guy who has disappeared and reappeared in front of us and we’re discussing his timing.”

“It just doesn’t make sense,” argued Leïto. “Why would he tell me he was going to warn you too if he’d already done so?”

“I don’t know,” Lola shrugged. “Maybe he has a poor sense of time. Or got confused. I don’t know! What we should be talking about is how he claimed to know me.”

That sparked Leïto’s curiosity as he quickly returned to the short conversation with the man. “He did know my name. Started talking to me like we’d done it a hundred times before.”

“Did that with me too. Except…”

As Lola went into greater detail as to what had happened, Leïto only half way paid attention. It was important to know exactly what the man had said to his sister but another thought had crossed his mind that he just couldn’t forget it. Now that he thought on it, he had seen the man before too. But not face to face. Though somewhat different, the man had undoubtedly been present in Leïto’s dreams. That didn’t make any sense though. He had never seen the man before today so how could he show up in his dreams?

He returned his attention back to his sister as she added, “It seemed like he was planning on coming back. Whatever brought him there seemed to time out and he was gone again.”

“Same thing happened to me!” Leïto put in.

“Then we at least know to expect him again,” muttered Lola. “But when? And what was this danger he was talking about?”

“Didn’t say anything more to me,” Leïto replied as he quickly detailed his own experience with the strange man, even though there wasn’t much else to say. Still, he felt it necessary to add what he’d recently realized as well. “He was in my dreams too.”

“Wait since when?” asked Lola.

“For…for a while now. I think since the walls came down,” Leïto said, trying to think up the exact time. “Why?”

“What were the dreams about?” asked Lola instead. Her eyes were sparkling with some idea.

“It was us…” he said slowly,”…taking down Taha. Plus the guy. And everything that happened was just…different. We still succeeded in getting the wall down but…the in between was different.”

“I’ve been having those dreams too!” cried Lola. She quickly started rambling to herself, trying to come to some consensus as to how this could be, but Leïto quickly interjected.

“Are you sure? What if—”

However, Lola interrupted him, going into some of the finer details. They all matched every little bit. Leïto couldn’t help but blink in shock. He’d never heard of anyone being able to share a dream before, and certainly not to this degree. He looked around just to make sure he was still standing in his home, that the world wasn’t upside down and that he was awake. He couldn’t believe this was really happening yet he was almost positive he wasn't asleep.

“But the real question is, what does this all mean,” Lola muttered as she finally finished talking.

“Well, we both have a disappearing man that talks like he knows us, that has shown up in our dreams of an event that didn’t happen, and who apparently has been trying to warn us about some oncoming danger. Have I covered all the bases?”

Lola snorted and rolled her eyes at her brother. “Stating the questions isn’t exactly going to get us anywhere.”

“Then what should we do?” asked Leïto. “We don’t know where he comes from. We have no way of tracking him. Besides dreams, we’ve never seen him anywhere else. And he looks like he lives in a sewer. I doubt there’s a home address we can scrounge up from someone.”

“Then we’ll have to wait.”

“Wait?”

“For him to come back, assuming were both not mad,” smirked Lola. “We stay on guard and wait it out. Something tells me he’ll be able to find us again.”

Leïto frowned at that. It wasn’t like they had another choice but what his sister was suggesting meant wholly putting faith into a single stranger. Leïto had never placed faith in a stranger before. The one time he’d nearly done so, he’d almost lost it all. But his sister was of course right as she nearly always was. For the moment, there was no way to track the guy and the man seemed to be good enough at finding them anyways.

That knowledge didn’t ease Leïto’s nerves though as he ended up staying on edge the entire night. He and Lola tried to come up with more ideas but they were grasping in the dark with no idea what lay in front of them. Because of that, they soon decided it would be best if they just slept on it. Nevertheless, Leïto quickly found that the slightest sound made him jump out of bed. Yet whenever he checked his bedroom or walked around the apartment and checked on Lola, he found nothing out of the ordinary. This incredibly restless sleep meant it was impossible for him to dream yet he was certain that if he had, the mystery man would have been there.

But he didn’t dream and he barely slept and when he went to work as a consultant with the police as he usually did these days, everyone seemed to catch onto his more skittish and jumpy nature. He was acting like the walls were up again, that law and order no longer existed. He nearly threw an officer over his shoulder without even thinking to simply illustrate his predicament.

The head of the precinct came up to him not long after that incident, asking him if there was something happening that he needed to know about.

“No,” Leïto replied with a confidence he did not feel. “Everything’s fine.”

“You know,” the officer murmured, “you don’t have to do any of this alone. We’re here to help and protect Banlieue 13 and that includes you.”

Leïto just smiled, simple and calm even if his stomach was curling in on itself. He replied, “I assure you, I’m fine. It’s simply a personal matter that will be over with soon.”

At least, that’s what Leïto hoped. For his and Lola’s sake.


	4. Together Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm planning on 20 chapters now and that probably won't change much. I also probably won't be able to do more chapters than one per week. Hopefully you enjoy this chapter and the rest of the story. Thanks again for reading :)

At first, it was like Lola was waiting for the stranger to jump out at any moment, at any time of day. When Leïto came to check in on her at night, she was always fully awake, her eyes thinly opening even at her brother’s nearly silent footfalls. Yet one day passed…and then another…and another…and no danger was seen and the stranger still didn’t reappear.

They didn’t talk about it. What was there to discuss? Yet that underlying idea that they might have been crazy was certainly there. People didn’t just appear out of nothing. It had just been a fluke. It had to be.

And then two weeks had gone by and it seemed like the stranger would eventually be forgotten. However, as Lola went to the market with her brother one day, those strange visits all jumped to the forefront of their mind. They didn’t even make it when the oddly dressed men appeared in front of them. They wore unfamiliar uniforms with their faces covered, making it impossible to tell if one of them was the stranger or not.

Neither had time to really consider that possibility though as the two men pulled futuristic looking guns on them and Lola and Leïto quickly found themselves fighting for their lives. The act wasn’t that alien and they both naturally moved out of the paths of the guns. Leïto, being the show off that he was, took one of the opponents down with grace and speed, twisting his body like a pretzel as he snapped the gun out of the man’s hand and took him down.

Lola went with the more casual approach, moving past the gun and head butting the guy on the bridge of his nose, something which the mask didn’t cover. As he dropped the gun and staggered backwards from the pain, she used her added weight to carry his momentum down to the ground. Her brother had already knocked the other guy out and as Lola pinned the guy to the ground, she could have easily changed the position, wrapping an arm around the guy’s neck and making him loose consciousness. However, they didn’t know if they had time for that so Leïto knocked the guy out with a solid punch instead.

Taking her brother’s offered hand, Lola stood up and adjusted her skirt as she muttered, “We better get out of here before more show.”

Her words were like a trigger as she felt a presence behind her. Quickly, she snapped her neck around, hands up and ready for another fight. Leïto did the same, going so far to try and take the guy down but before he could another agent appeared that quickly attacked the stranger.

And it _was_ the stranger. He wore the same clothes that Lola had seen him in the past two times and she watched with her brother, both fascinated and in shock over how he took the man down. One move in particular stuck out to Lola, like she had seen it a hundred times. She chalked it up to coincidence, that surely other people than her brother knew that move but she couldn’t be sure.

With the third agent down, the stranger turned back to them and Lola quickly readied her stance once more. However, he seemed to have learned from their last meeting and didn’t try to approach her. Instead, he looked from Leïto to Lola with an odd mixture of pain and awe, like he couldn’t believe he was seeing them again, like it could have made him smile. But something stopped his lips from turning upwards, something bitter and sad stayed in his eyes as well.

“You need to leave B13. Now.”

“Who the hell do you think you are ordering us around?” growled out Leïto, his entire body posed for anything.

“Someone who can save your life if you’d just listen to him for once!”

Lola watched her brother snort in amusement. He seemed to relax but Lola knew her brother was as ready for a fight as ever.

“You don’t know me or my sister,” Leïto responded. “Stop acting like you do.”

“Fine. Whatever. I just need you to get out of this burb. They know you’re never going to leave B13 so they’re always going to know where you are. You can’t let that happen.”

“We’re not leaving our home!” cried Lola. “We’ve stuck with it through thick and thin and we’re not abandoning—”

“They don’t care about B13 and they sure as hell aren’t going to do anything to it. They don’t want to fuck up the future so badly that it affects theirs.”

Lola carefully glanced at her brother. It was weird enough that people seemed to suddenly be able to appear out of nothing but the future? What the hell was this guy on about?

However, before either could ask more, suddenly more guards showed up. One that was closest to Leïto was quickly taken down but the other two were immediately disarmed and knocked out by the stranger. He gave them a pointed stare and growled out, “Banlieue 13 is more likely to be in danger if you both stay. I’m not asking you to follow me or anything. I’m just asking you to get out of here.”

Leïto’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not doing anything until you explain—”

“We don’t have time for that! Stop being so damn stubborn and listen to someone other than yourself!”

Lola couldn’t help but snort which earned her a fond glare from her brother. Nevertheless, more passed in that glance than a simple emotion. If they were the main targets and their city could be harmed by their proximity, then they would do anything to protect it. However, they still had no idea what was going on or who the stranger was. Again, a leap of faith was needed, one which neither really wanted to take. Staying still didn’t seem like a viable option though if more men were going to come. With only a second’s more hesitation, Leïto quickly started forward and Lola followed suit.

Neither didn’t even suggest going back to their home. They had their wallets on them which was enough to get out of their district and around Paris. Besides, they might not have time and if the agents could so easily find them on some random street in B13, then it didn’t seem like a difficult leap to assume that they would be found even quicker there.

As they headed to the one bus station out of the city, Lola took note of how the stranger was following them. She wasn’t angry. He seemed like the only one who knew what was going on. However, she couldn’t help but ask, “I thought you said you wouldn’t make us follow you.”

“I’m not. I’m following you,” the man replied. “Someone needs to be looking out for your backs.”

“We don’t need your protection,” hissed Leïto. He was clearly irritated by the stranger’s words but he didn’t stop moving forward or try to pick a fight at least.

“Maybe not but you need my information,” the man replied and that was honestly something neither could argue with.

Still, it didn’t stop a growl from escaping Leïto’s lips when he had to pay for the stranger’s fair. Not that Lola, or her brother really, were surprised. Lola was pretty sure the guy didn’t even have a penny on him.

Riding the bus into Paris was odd. Even the Banlieue 13 before the walls came down would have made the stranger stick out like a sore thumb. B13 may have been awful but they had still had clothes and bathed occasionally. This guy’s clothes were like Frankenstein, a patchwork of random fabrics and items pushed together to resemble something of an outfit. That and it smelled like he hadn’t bathed in a week.

Lola could tell that her brother was thinking the same thing, that they needed to get the stranger out of the public eye, especially if their whole point was to be in hiding. Because of this, they stopped at the first hotel they could find the moment they were off the bus and walking. The hotel they found was a bit expensive but that didn’t really matter thanks to the reward money they had received for taking down Taha. Most of the money they still hadn’t used, instead slowly giving it out to others who needed it up using it to support their neighbors. They still had a substantial sum left though, lucky for them as they quickly checked in and went up to the room.

The moment the door was closed, Lola couldn’t help but feel her nerves sharpen as she tensed. Her brother did the same, both turning their eyes on the stranger. They were alone again, this time apparently safe, and they wanted answers now.

“Tell us what the hell is going on,” growled Leïto.

“Actually, how about we start with a name first,” suggested Lola. It was getting pretty annoying just thinking of the guy as the stranger or the man.

Leïto nodded in agreement and both looked expectantly at the man.

He sighed and nodded. “My name is Damien. Captain Damien Tomaso.”


	5. The Sit Down and the Talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One/fourth of the way done! Thank you again for anyone who is reading this. It really means a lot to know that anyone is still in this fandom. Thank you again <3

Damien said his full name, a small part of him hoping for some flash of recognition. However, there wasn’t even a hint that Leïto and Lola knew him. Leïto asked, “Captain? What are you? Some kind of a soldier?”

“I’m a police officer,” Damien said without hesitation. Yet the moment the words were out of his mouth he wanted to take them back and it wasn’t because of the huff of air that escaped Leïto’s mouth, masking a laugh. Being a police officer had been Damien’s entire life, only to realize that it had all been a lie. He was still fighting for the good and just but he couldn’t even technically say the law was on his side. His time’s entire government was warped and corrupt. The laws were no good, the officers and politicians. Being part of the police was pointless because there was nothing to back his actions except his own moral code. So what was he?

However, Damien didn’t have time to really contemplate this as Leïto replied, “You don’t move like a cop.”

The contrasting words to what Leïto had said in another time hurt Damien more than he expected. He’d thought it had only been a week now since he’d created the paradox. Now…he wasn’t sure how much time had passed for him. How much had changed? Apparently, he couldn’t mask the hurt as effectively as he had hoped too. The confusion on the siblings’ faces made it clear they had seen Damien’s pain and didn’t understand. Thankfully, neither actually asked about that though as Damien replied, “How I fight isn’t the point. The whole reason I’m here is to protect you two.”

“And why the hell do we need protecting. Taha’s gone,” retorted Leïto.

“You think this has to do with Taha? Taha is-is an ant compared to the hell that Kruger has at his fingertips,” growled out Damien.

Leïto’s disbelief was obvious enough but before the man could argue more, Lola quickly said, “How about before we get into all this talk, you take a shower. Huh? No offense but I can’t concentrate on anything if you smell like a sewer.”

Damien watched as Leïto eased up again, smirking at his sister before glancing at Damien again. “Is there really a time constraint we got to worry about?”

“Not really,” Damien replied after a moment of thought. He knew how confused they had to have been but he couldn’t really explain more without just laying out the complete story. Besides, now that they weren’t in Banlieue 13, Kruger’s men would have to do actual leg work in their time. It would be a while before they were found again.

Leïto gave a curt nod at that and gestured to the one bathroom they had for the room. Lola asked, “So do you think it’s alright to move about Paris?”

“They only know your movements in Banlieue 13. I wouldn’t recommend going anywhere for an extended period or getting separated but running out and grabbing something shouldn’t be a problem,” Damien replied.

“Then we’ll be out for a little bit. Don’t try and disappear on us again,” Lola said with a pointed look.

“Don’t worry. I won’t.”

Leïto didn’t look so sure but neither argued more and soon Damien found himself alone again, the siblings off to perform whatever task they needed to do.

Walking into the bathroom, Damien found himself unable to move once he glimpsed his reflection. He couldn’t be sure the last time he’d looked into a mirror but he knew that the man staring back was someone new and alien. Gone was the clean shaven face and uniform. Gone was the light in his eyes. It was amazing that there was any resemblance at all underneath the muck and grime.

Had he spent four days in the future by himself? Had it been longer? Had he finished fixing the time machine in a few hours or a day? Or more? Clocks were a thing of the past in 3195 and with most still living underground, it was impossible to tell a time of day by the sun. How long had Damien been on his own?

Slowly, he tore his gaze from the mirror and began to discard his clothing on to the floor before finally stepping into the shower. Even by twenty-first century standards, it wasn’t anything special, yet it might as well have been the best shower ever for Damien. It felt so alien though, wrong, supporting the idea that it had been longer since he’d been with civilization.

As the water turned brown at his feet and dirt no longer matted the hairs of his legs together, an odd pain passed through him that made him sick at heart. To think his body no longer knew how to react to the sensation of cleaning. Taking a long shower after a mission used to be Damien’s solitude. Now it was as foreign as everything else.

More dirt fell off of him. Some of the water was dark brown with small clumps stuck together while other sections ran a color closer to copper. It made Damien realize just how many untreated wounds he had. It was a miracle he hadn’t gotten an infection yet as his eyes moved over the cuts and scrapes. There was one across his abdomen, deeper than the rest that twinged painfully once he saw it.

He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the feeling of water hitting and sliding down his skin. However, his mind did him one better and the pain faded away as his thoughts moved back to Lola and Leïto.

Damien truly hadn’t expected how disheartening it would feel seeing them both again, knowing that the friendship they had once shared was not remembered by them and, technically, had never existed.

Really one who preferred isolation on his off days, he still had enjoyed people’s company and after everything had gone to shit, that had disappeared. He’d thought Leïto and Lola would be the last two friendly faces he’d meet but even they remained stiff and on guard. It made sense of course but for once, emotion won out over logic and the pain remained as clear as ever.

A sudden knock on the bathroom door made Damien start as he realized that for the first time in what felt like forever, he had stopped paying attention to his surroundings and relaxed to a certain degree. He held his breath, already expecting a fight, but before he could do anything rash he heard Lola’s voice on the other side.

“We got you some clothes! I’ll just leave them on the toilet seat! That alright?”

“Yes that’s fine!” Damien called back. He listened to the door open as Lola padded over and then left several seconds later. Though her appearance had been a bit of a shock, he was thankful that he’d been broken out of his own head. The whole point of this was to protect Leïto and Lola and he sure as hell couldn’t do that if he was zoning out.

Quickly finishing off the rest of his shower before he turned into a prune, Damien stepped out only to find himself frozen in front of the mirror again. His stubble was much more pronounced than he would have normally kept, yet the face that stared back finally resembled something of the old Damien. The only difference was this one was disheartened at the world, no longer sure that there was a law to follow. He truly was going by his own code now and if that ever faltered, then he’d have nothing.

Drying himself off, he picked up the clothes Lola had set down for him. They were plain, simple, and loose. Quickly throwing the grey sweater and black pants on, Damien could tell they had gone off Leïto’s stature, explaining why everything was a bit long. It wasn’t to bad though and after rolling up the sleeves a bit, he finally bent down and grabbed the time machine. It was the only thing he kept on him from the former outfit and once it was firmly strapped in place, he walked out of the bathroom. Leïto and Lola had shed the coats and scarves due to autumn’s chill, leaving both in very familiar outfits. Damien still couldn’t help but wonder if Leïto only owned one black tank top.

Still, as he took in both siblings who sat on one of the twin beds, he was only to aware of how they stared at him. Both seemed a bit shocked at seeing him without his thick layer of dirt, something he couldn’t really blame them for. He simply offered a neutral expression and said, “Thank you for the clothes.”

“No problem,” Lola replied. “We got food too.”

“Hey! Before any of that, I want the truth as to what the hell is going on,” Leïto quickly interjected.

Damien nodded, not surprised. He walked over and sat on the opposite bed, both siblings turning to him with expecting looks. Knowing that they would both just get annoyed if he danced around the subject and that there really was no way to ease them into the truth, he simply said it. “I’m from the future.”

Right away, Lola cried out, “I told you he’d say that!”

“Still doesn’t make it any less bullshit,” Leïto replied before turning his gaze back to Damien. His expression clearly said that Damien would have to do better before he even remotely began to believe him.

“Well how about I start at the beginning? Or, I suppose in this case, the end would be better,” murmured Damien. He momentarily got his thoughts together before he focused back on Leïto and Lola.

He began with his former chief and his time. He talked about how the man had come from an utterly destroyed future with no hopes for the continuation of humanity. Upon creating a time machine from found blueprints and old models, he’d spent over a decade, going through humanity to the one point where everything went to shit.

From there, Damien changed tunes, going into his own past and talking about how he became a police officer. Eventually he became a part of TD, Time Division, a group that went through time taking in rogue time travelers. By that point from Damien’s perspective, the chief had already infiltrated the police and had made minor changes here and there. However, the biggest operation was the one involving Leïto. If he had been taken out of his time then a domino effect would have occurred leading to acid rain and making anything and everything above ground dead.

At that, to both Leïto’s and Lola’s credit, neither interrupted or said anything though their expressions clearly showed how crazy they thought he was.

Damien continued on with his tale anyways, going into how he ‘messed up’ his mission with Leïto. He told of what had happened in the alternate timeline and how he thought it was a simple mistake that he had fixed. However, upon coming back to his time, his chief had made him aware that the mission with Leïto hadn’t been an accident and that it had all been planned out, step by step to make a profit but ultimately destroying humanity’s chance. From there, he described how he’d created the paradox after realizing his attempts to fix what was broken had failed, the chief’s death, and how he’d run to the ruined future for safety and solitude and for space to think. He’d eventually fixed the time machine and from there, the rest was history (or technically the future).

Falling silent, Damien waited for either sibling to speak first. He knew that Lola was usually the more vocal one but both kept their mouths shut for quite some time. They avoided looking at Damien, occasionally sharing some meaningful glance with each other before retreating back to their own heads.

Finally, Leïto spoke up as he looked Damien in the eyes. “I’d say this was bat shit insane but I’ve seen you and others disappear and reappear multiple times now.”

“So why not time travel?” Lola murmured with a roll of her eyes. Nevertheless, it was clear she didn’t exactly have a better answer. “So, what they want is to get us out of the way and…what? Give fuel to discrimination and the distrust of the government? Get the walls back into place?”

“Something like that,” Damien replied.

Leïto rubbed his eyes tiredly before looking to Damien again. The glance that he sent suggested that there was still doubt there. However, there was something that Leïto and Lola weren’t telling Damien that was making his story easier to believe. As much as he wanted to know what they were holding back, he knew he needed them to trust him so he didn’t push. Instead, he silently took the offered food that Leïto finally held out to him.

He winced as some of his wounds pulled at the slight stretch, something which the siblings noticed right away. He’d been to busy and focused on getting to Leïto and Lola to really notice any of the wounds before but now that he was finally still and more at ease than he had been in ages, the wariness in his bones was finally getting to him.

“You’re hurt?” asked Lola with a small frown.

“I’ve managed worse,” Damien replied, keeping a calm look about his face. However, Leïto didn’t seem to buy it as he gestured with his hand.

“Lift up your shirt.”

“It’s only a few scrapes and—”

“If all you’re saying is true, then you need to be in the best shape you can be. Shirt up. Now.”

Damien let out a slight irritated sigh, knowing that the stubbornness in Leïto’s face wouldn’t leave until he did as asked. Pulling the shirt up, Damien watched Leïto’s face as the man’s eyes carefully went over every inch of his body. The urge to shiver was almost to much but he was able to fight the feeling as Leïto finally looked him in the face.

“They should still be cleaned and bandage. I’ll be right back.”

Almost opening his mouth to argue, Damien quickly stopped, knowing that arguing was useless as Leïto grabbed his coat and wallet. He told them it would take ten minutes at the most before leaving. Once the door finally shut, Damien’s eyes moved back to Lola who had let out a surprised snort.

He gave her a curious glance and she quickly replied, “We both still think your story is kind of insane but the fact that he feels he can leave you here with me really shows that he at least believes your character if nothing else. Or…I suppose you could already figure that out if you really did know us before.”

Damien just nodded in a silent agreement. He’d known Lola and Leïto long enough to read between the lines of their actions so he had known how important it was that Leïto felt he could trust Damien, at least in some small capacity.


	6. Supercop has a Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I want to say thanks again for those that have left kudos. It really helps in encouraging me to write this, knowing that there are at least a few interested in this story and not just myself. Even if you decide to not stick around to the end, you read a few chapters and decide it's not for you, I still want to say thank you.
> 
> Also, for like my .5 readers, I made a playlist for this fic for anyone who is interested: http://8tracks.com/changethecircumstances/the-cop-from-the-future

Part of Leïto still couldn’t believe everything that the man, that Damien, had said. In a way, his down to earth mind just couldn’t rationalize it and that was the problem. How could you believe in something if it didn’t conform with the rest of the world?

So he focused on simply walking to the closest store, grabbing some dressings, and making it back to the apartment. He would have grabbed Lola to come with him too except something told him to let her stay. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Lola could protect herself. He knew she could but with Damien…Leïto didn’t even know who would win if he fought him. Yet out of everything that had happened, even with the unknown danger out there, Leïto’s gut had told him that Damien was safe. And if Leïto couldn’t trust his gut then what was there?

Still, even with that mentality he made sure to hurry back. Neither Lola nor Damien had apparently moved though the small pile of random food they had grabbed earlier was much lower than before.

“Come on, take it off,” muttered Leïto. “No point in dressing the wounds over the sweater.”

Damien let out a small snort at that and nodded in agreement. Leïto unpackaged everything and refocused on Damien, noting that there were even more wounds on his arms and back that had been hidden by the sleeves. Looking back to his face, Leïto could finally see what he would expect from someone this battered and bruised. His face made Leïto think his story might just be that much more true or, that at the very least, Damien truly believed in it.

None of them said anything as Leïto started tearing up pieces of bandages and Lola helped. Most Damien applied himself but a few either Leïto or Lola had to help him with. Once it was done, Damien slipped the shirt back on and it was like he was trying to put on some mask, strong and resolute. Leïto imagined it was what he had worn as a police officer.

Now that mask was a ghost of what it had been. Or at least Leïto imagined so. He was comparing to much of the man to what he had seen in his dreams and even after Damien’s story, he couldn’t fully believe that those were truly memories and had happened too.

“How about we sleep,” Lola suggested, bring Leïto out of his mind. “This was all a lot to take in and we need to rest if we’re going to come up with any plan.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” replied Damien with a curt nod. “We should be safe tonight.”

“Sounds good,” said Lola. She then looked over and Leïto could tell she was double checking with him.

He just silently nodded in agreement and made a slight motion to the restroom.

After doing his business and washing his hands, he could see that Damien had already gotten under the covers of one of the beds and Lola in the other. Leïto simply glanced at the backside of the stranger before clicking the light off and slipping in next to his sister. From there, sleep should have just taken him but ideas and thoughts still swirled in his mind over the impossible story and the danger that came with it.

As he listened to Lola’s breathing fall into a more regular pattern, Leïto’s ears caught the sound of movement from the other bed. Leïto tensed, unsure of what Damien was going to do. The little bit of light that entered his eyes though only showed Damien getting up and easing himself onto the floor.

Leïto had never had the world’s best bed but he honestly couldn’t think of a time when a bed had been too soft. It again made him place Damien in a specific light, made it that much more likely that Damien had been through some shit. He wanted to ask about it, wanted to know more than just the facts that Damien had spouted out. There had been emotion there, behind his eyes and in his voice, but Damien had clearly been focusing on the facts like a drowning man gasping for air.

With those final thoughts, Leïto slipped into sleep and his mind wondered towards times that had been erased.

It was almost like Damien’s tale had made Leïto’s dreams that much more vibrant and when he woke up, they seemed so much closer to being reality.

He got up first and looked curiously over to where Damien was still curled up on the floor. One arm loosely held a pillow close as a sheet was twisted around his form. He seemed calmer and perhaps a little younger in his sleep. He looked more like the man in his dreams, a man of composure and resolution with an occasionally brilliant smile and full laugh. He didn’t look like he’d gone through hell, not yet.

With a small sigh, Leïto quietly slipped on his shoes and headed out to grab breakfast. As he did, he tried to sort out his emotions towards Damien. Judging by the dreams, they had worked well together despite an incredibly rocky start, they had formed a deep bond, but what did that matter? It had never happened. Should he just ignore all dreams, any hint from that alternate time? Did those events just not count? At the very least, Leïto was fairly sure that Damien must have been just as confused, possibly even more so. Going by his timeline, assuming time travel and paradoxes were real, then Damien had experienced everything in Leïto’s head first hand. No matter how confusing it was to Leïto, there was no arguing that they were memories to Damien.

All this Leïto thought about as he grabbed breakfast and went back to the hotel. Upon entering, he noted how Lola and Damien whipped their heads towards him. The slight bit of relief in Lola’s eyes quickly followed by annoyance clearly based on the fact that Leïto hadn’t told her where he was going was expected. That same look almost completely being mirrored in Damien’s eyes was not so expected. It again made Leïto think back on the events that weren’t as Lola said, “You got food so I’ll forgive you this time.”

“Forgive me for what?” muttered Leïto as he rolled his eyes.

“Not telling me where you went. For all I knew you could have been taken!” growled out Lola though as she took a bite of a biscuit it was clear she had already excused his actions.

Damien shot him a look that mirrored Lola’s words but his eyes softened again as he simply said, “Just tell us next time.”

“Yeah, yeah, I promise. Now, seeing as we’re all well rested, how about starting with some plan?” asked Leïto. Carefully watching Damien’s reaction, he added, “Don’t tell me you don’t have a plan supercop.”

“I have a plan,” he retorted, only seeming somewhat upset that Leïto thought he didn’t. “But it doesn’t involve you two.”

“Doesn’t involve us? How can you say that when you literally dragged us into this!” cried Leïto.

“I didn’t drag you into anything. Kruger was the one who made you targets. I just—”

“So then Kruger dragged us into this! What difference does it make? Either way you’re not getting rid of us that easily.” Out of the corner of his eyes, Leïto noted how Lola didn’t say anything as she watched the conversation unfold. Her eyes clearly showed how she was a hundred percent on Leïto’s side. Nevertheless, she remained the silent partner as Damien quickly shouted back.

“You putting yourself out there just gets you killed and possibly destroys the future. It makes a whole world of difference!”

Damien had stood up by this point and Leïto quickly made a show of stepping forward, arms crossed and head held high to help make his height advantage clear. No way in hell was he backing down from the guy.

“If you’ve met us before, if you got to know us, then you sure as hell know that neither of us are just going to walk away and let you fight this guy alone,” Leïto shot back. “Who else is there? Your dead chief? You’ll need more than that if this guys is as bad as you say he is.”

The way Damien’s mouth became a thin line showed that Leïto had not only gotten it right but also pushed a few buttons he probably shouldn’t have. However, the guy stayed composed, for the most part, and replied, “If something happens to you, everything I did would have been for nothing.”

“And if you die then you get the exact same thing,” Leïto shot back. “You seem to think that we’re the only ones important enough to keep alive but what about you? I imagine that keeping yourself alive is pretty damn important as well if you don’t want Kruger to win.”

The fact that Damien didn’t respond right away showed Leïto that he had won the upper hand. To keep that, he quickly continued with, “Besides, three is better than one. If we worked with you before we can do it again.”

“Saving Banlieue 13 is a little different compared to saving the future,” Damien said.

Leïto just snorted though. “You told me that saving B13 helped fix the future. I don’t see any difference.”

That actually earned Leïto a smile as he watched Damien first crack a grin before he slowly fell into a hard, quick laugh. It wasn’t quite what Leïto could recall from his dream. There certainly wasn’t any ease in Damien’s shoulders and the sound wasn’t as bright, but it was still a sign that Leïto had won the argument which was enough for him.

“So you won’t take my advice and get as far away as possible?” Damien asked one last time.

“Not even a little,” smirked Leïto. “So, you got a plan?”

“Something like that,” Damien replied. “We need hard evidence off of Kruger if we’re going to prosecute him, make everyone see he’s been given to much power and laws need to be changed.”

“And what does hard evidence entail?”

“Right now the best bet is getting the hard drive off his main computer. He’s cleaned up his tracks well but he’s meticulous too. He’s sure to have some recording on there.”

“What about decrypting it?” asked Lola suddenly, finally joining the conversation again. “No way can you just pull it from the computer and suddenly everything you need is just there.”

Leïto nodded in agreement with his sister. “You have any decrypting skills supercop.”

Letting out a tired sigh, Damien muttered, “No, but I know someone who does. Well…more accurately you do.”

Raising an eyebrow, Leïto waited for Damien to explain.

“She goes by Tao. In another time where the wall wasn’t successfully taken down, she became one of the big gang lords in Banlieue 13 though she dealt more in information than weapons or drugs. Even now, with the walls down and more legal commerce coming in, I imagine she still holds the contacts that could get into any hard drive.”

“Even if it’s from the future?” asked Lola curiously.

“For the moment it’s the best bet. Besides, there’s no one I can trust from my own time with evidence like that.”

“And the contact?” asked Leïto. “What was their name?”

“Manual.”

Leïto didn’t really need to ask, at least not for himself. He knew of Tao and some of her tech savvy friends. He simply wanted to see how much Damien knew.

“Alright, so let’s say we go there and get this hard drive,” suggested Leïto as he gestured towards himself and Damien, “and Lola, you went and found Tao.”

Perhaps other siblings might have argued, but Lola understood her brother’s thinking well enough. Lola was a better asset dealing with Tao and, though it may have been different in another timeline, in this one she was more likely to get close to Tao and live.

“Sounds good to me,” she said. “So what’s next?”


	7. A Meeting With Tao

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now Tao is here! Thanks again for everyone who has read this. It really means a lot. I'll also probably be including a few more characters as this story goes though probably not K2 simply because Taha is already gone here and I feel that K2 probably wouldn't stick around or be able to hold anything together to much.

Though Lola wasn’t going with them, she went over the hand drawn blueprints and information Damien spit out hour after hour. The added information certainly couldn’t hurt. However, her biggest job was tracking down Tao and figuring out the best way to approach the situation without getting shot.

With reform coming to Banlieue 13 and Taha gone, many thugs had up and left, looking for warmer prospects where the law wouldn’t be so present. However, for those whose goods didn’t require so much storage area or who were on the lower end of black market trade, they had stayed and still lived in areas that the police hadn’t dared to touch yet. Tao was one of those people.

Damien had mentioned that she had become one of the main gang leaders and Lola didn’t doubt it for a second. Tao ran a tight ship and didn’t take kindly to traitors. It was honestly a shame that Tao was in that kind of business.

There was more to worry about than simply getting her to help them though. Obviously Tao would want to know everything on the drive that Damien and Leïto got if her man was able to crack it (not a necessarily good thing for her to have future information). Nevertheless, it was Tao’s malice towards her brother that worried her more. She knew Leïto had tried to go into her area and had nearly gotten shot for it. Tao didn’t hide the fact that she blamed Leïto for her fall in business. Hopefully she didn’t hold that same animosity towards Lola.

However, if for whatever reason she didn’t have this guy called Manual or someone with his experience then they were screwed anyway.

That constant thought of failure stayed with Lola as she carefully reached out to contacts of Tao, finally getting herself a meeting several days later. By that time, Damien had briefed Leïto on everything of relevance and it was time for them to leave.

“If you don’t bring him back, you’re dead,” Lola said with a pointed look at Damien as her goodbye. Honestly, any trouble that happened she figured her brother would be more likely behind it but she still wanted to get her point across. She was trusting Damien with the life of her only family. That was no small feat.

Thankfully, it was clear that Damien understood that too. After the few days they had worked together, Lola had come to trust the man more and more and could see why they would have done so before too. She also saw just how well her brother worked with him. Despite the argument of a few days ago, they complimented each other; Damien’s more rigid and carefully planned out thought process with Leïto’s improvisation. Some of Damien’s words betrayed him though, showing he had learned a thing or two from Leïto in the other timeline, even if he preferred a definite plan.

Lola could tell that it was one of the many things that confused and frustrated her brother (and herself) as to how they should feel about Damien. It was made even more poignant by the dreams, something they still hadn’t told Damien about. Nevertheless, there wasn’t much time to just sit and think about their feelings and what their connections really meant. They were trying to save the future.

That left the goodbye short and quick as Lola reluctantly hugged her brother and then took several steps back, waiting to see Damien and Leïto disappear. At one point, Damien had explained exactly how the machine worked but Lola was more interested in simply seeing the phenomenon again now that she knew it wasn’t a trick of the light or anything else more logical.

Looking between them, she could tell there was a promise in their eyes. Damien would bring Leïto back and Leïto sure as hell wasn’t going to stay stuck in the future.

With that, Damien looped an arm around Leïto’s and quickly pressed several buttons on the device. Their image flickered and broke apart like a glitch on a computer screen before they were suddenly gone, leaving Lola still somewhat reeling as she truly didn’t know the next time she would see her brother. They could come back in several seconds or several days depending how well the machine was cooperating.

Just to make sure, Lola stuck around a little longer but when no one showed up again, she decided it was time to head off to meet Tao. It had been difficult getting a meeting but even more so on grounds that weren’t Banlieue 13.

It was a warehouse block on the outskirts of Paris, a structure that used to bring in and out goods for Taha but now lay abandoned. It was the best Lola could do. It was better than being in B13 but Lola certainly would have preferred something more public.

She took a cab to the area and then walked the remaining half mile. Breaking into the structure they had agreed on was easy and at first, she thought she had gotten there first. However, the sound of heels quickly had Lola turning round as she watched Tao enter from the other side. The obvious entrance was clearly done more for Lola’s benefit than anything. The guns that one man carried clearly showed that running was useless if things didn’t go well and Lola had heard the rumors of Tao’s unique fighting style. She just hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

With a deep breath, Lola set her shoulders back and moved to meet them in the middle, creating the air that she wasn’t afraid. In a way, she honestly wasn’t. After all she had faced worse like Taha. But Lola didn’t allow herself to become disillusioned into thinking this would be easy.

Keeping a face of disinterest, Tao looked around the structure before turning back to Lola. “Where’s your brother hiding?”

“It’s just me.”

She snorted in clear disbelief and gestured for one person to check the perimeters. She had brought five people total, at least into the warehouse, now down to four as one man went off to check around.

“So what do you have for me?” asked Tao as she crossed her arms.

“A highly encrypted drive that we need files off of.”

“From?”

“A government official.” Lola couldn’t exactly just come out and say it was from the future.

“I don’t do things like this for free,” Tao reminded her with a pointed look.

“You can keep everything else. Just open it and let us get what we need. That’s all we ask,” Lola responded. She knew Damien hadn’t wanted to do something like that and she wouldn’t be surprised if Damien tried to erase the information from Tao’s hands after everything was over. However, Lola knew that nothing else would so fully convince her as information. Besides, it was all they had to give.

Tao nodded in understanding and then took a step forward. “And the fallout?”

“Only Leïto and myself will be harmed if things go wrong. They don’t care about anyone else.”

Tao gave a little snort and then gestured for her men to take a few steps out of earshot. She then took another step forward and came right up to Lola’s face. Her boots made her taller and Lola resisted the urge to step back.

“You’re telling me the bare minimum,” she murmured softly.

“I’ve told you all you need to know,” Lola replied as she kept her voice civil and even.

However, it only earned her a predatory smirk as Tao said, “You and your brother destroyed business in B13. Even if you’re offering information, I have no idea what that information is. How do I know this is worth it? How do I know you and your cop loving brother aren’t just trying to get me arrested?”

It was a fair point and one that was nearly impossible to respond to without giving away everything. Lola simply settled on, “I can’t tell you more.” Tao’s look clearly showed that no help would be given if that was the case and Lola quickly went on to add, “Not right now. When we have the drive…we’ll explain as much as we can.”

“Is that why your brother isn’t around? Running about? Stealing from the government?”

“Basically.” It was the simple answers that would help her the most here. She just had to stay as vague as possible.

Tao just shook her head and in the low light, Lola’s eyes caught the glint of the blade the woman kept in her hair. It was simply another reminder of how this could all end. However, Tao didn’t let her braid fall and instead replied, “You’re going to have to answer a lot before Manual goes anywhere near your drive.”

Good, so Lola had gotten that information without having to fish for it. Now knowing Manual was definitely with Tao at this moment in time, Lola knew she had to get Tao to agree to have him decrypt the drive.

“We’ll tell you all we can,” Lola repeated. “Promise.”

Tao gave a little huff but Lola knew that the mystery at least wasn’t completely harming her. Tao was curious and business was bad enough that she would hopefully take the bite. Still, there was one last comment to be made. “I don’t understand you two,” Tao said. “First you bring the police and the law right to our home and now you’re turning right back around and screwing them. Why?”

The look on her face told Lola that this question couldn’t be ignored or shoved under a rug so Lola answered as carefully as she could. “Everything my brother and I have done has been about protecting others and our home. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Tao snorted in amusement at that though Lola thought there might be a flicker of admiration there too. Before she could look at it more though, it was gone and the disinterested look she had carried into the building returned again. “Contact me when your brother is back. Then I’ll decided if we’ll help you or not.”

Lola returned her words with a stiff nod as she replied, “Deal.”

Tao looked back to her men, did a quick gesture, and soon they were all gone.

With the space suddenly empty, Lola finally allowed her shoulders to slump in relief. That had surprisingly gone well. It hadn’t been perfect but it had certainly been better than it could have gone. With a feeling of satisfaction about her, she quickly headed out of the warehouse and went back to the hotel.

She stopped and grabbed something to eat on the way there and then got to the room where she settled in to wait for Leïto and Damien.

And she waited.

And waited.

And finally she had to go back to Banlieue 13. She needed funds, needed to work, needed clothes, needed anything! Besides, people were beginning to wonder where they were and Lola quickly found herself covering for her brother down at the police station.

Days had turned to weeks and still her brother was nowhere to be seen. Even if Banlieue 13 was full of danger, of the possibility that Kruger’s men could be lurking behind any corner, it didn’t matter. Lola needed to make a living, needed to keep the rent flowing into their apartment among other things. No matter how worried she was or confused, life didn’t just stop because Leïto was missing.

So each day she moved through her home with her muscles tense and eyes strained as she tried to take in every little detail, expecting anything unusual to be danger but hoping it to be her brother.

Her mind filled with possibilities of what could have happened. Leïto getting stuck somewhere, being injured, dying, captured. What could have gone wrong?

Almost a month came and went when miracle of miracles she got a phone call. She didn’t recognize the number but answered anyways and practically jumped for joy at the voice she heard on the other end. However, as the spoken words finally registered with her, a frown set in.

“Why aren’t you at the hotel? Why did you check out?” came her brother’s hushed and hurried voice.

“Why-it’s been nearly a month you idiot!” She could imagine Leïto’s shocked face and knew that if their places were switched, she would need to take a moment to simply register that. However, they didn’t have that kind of time and Lola had been stuck waiting on them. She needed answers now. “Where are you?”

“A payphone near the hotel. I need medical equipment and some form of transportation. We can’t get on anything public.”

Lola was quiet for several seconds as she took that in. Judging by her brother’s voice, he wasn’t the one in need of medical help. It meant it had to be Damien which left only one other question to be asked. “Is Damien still with you?” Her question meant more than just wondering if he had come back with Leïto. Her heart clenched as she waited.

“Yes.”

His voice hinted at some level of worry but it was enough for Lola’s heart to calm down. Damien was at least alive and had a chance at living. Then there was the second most important thing. She finally asked, “Do you have the hard drive?”

“Yes.”

So whatever was wrong, they had at least gotten the evidence they needed. Lola could breath that much more easily now. However, there were still plenty of questions to be answered and she quickly replied. “Alright, I’ll see what I can do and I’ll be at the hotel as soon as possible.”

“We’ll meet you in the alley beside it,” Leïto replied before ending the call.


	8. The Slip Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for skipping a week but school was getting a bit much and I needed to focus on it and work for a bit. However, I'm back on track again and don't worry, I will not be dropping this story because it is to much fun to right. Thank you to the people that have left kudos since I've last updated and I hope you enjoy this chapter too.

If times had been easier, if they weren’t trying to take down Kruger and a corrupt government, then Damien would have relished in Leïto’s shocked face and look of wonder the moment they hit the future. Suddenly being thrust into a completely different scene, Leïto wobbled on his feet and gripped the arm that Damien still had looped around Leïto’s own. The shock was clearly there, like a small part of Leïto had still thought all of Damien’s claims were lies and fabrication. Now the inarguable truth lay in front of them.

But Damien didn’t have time to simply watch Leïto, to let him become accustomed to the new world. As he had explained before, going back to his own time would emit a certain amount of energy from his machine that would easily be picked up and identified as him. He gripped Leïto’s arm hard as he looked him in the eyes.

Leïto got the message and Damien could see the man steeling his nerves as he looked around the space. “Where to?”

“This way, quick,” Damien said as he quickly pushed himself into a crowd of people. Leïto followed and they disappeared into the throng.

Despite what so many early twenty-first century writers thought, the future wasn’t as vastly different as their present, at least not Damien’s original one. There were less corners. Damien supposed that was probably the first thing Leïto would notice. People were always trying to make things look sleeker and cooler unless they were trying to make a statement. But fashion hadn’t changed that drastically and Paris wasn’t a dark and gritty landscape. At least not yet.

That wouldn’t happen until many years in the future. But for now the city and the natural world were firmly integrated with each other. Technology was still advancing but nature had not been forgotten. That wouldn’t happen until 10 years from now as a nuclear power plant was placed dangerously close to Paris. The following ten more years would be marked by increased jobs and prosperity.

Then it would explode due to a domino effect of events, not long after Kruger’s own death. Kruger would be gone and Paris would be left in rubbles and that would only be the beginning.

Damien shook his head and returned his focus back to the task at hand. Technically, none of that had happened and might never happen as long as he and Leïto finished their mission.

Though their outfits might have been considered plain and somewhat outdated by some, they still blended in nicely as they pushed through the crowd. Fashion hadn’t so much changed as the fabrics most things were made of now and no one would be able to tell that from eyesight alone.

They continued on through the people and towards their goal, the Counseil d’Etat. Thankfully the building had only been slightly changed in the passing centuries making it fairly simple to show Leïto where everything would be. Hopefully they would manage to get in and out without a problem and by the time someone was on their trail, they’d be gone.

Of course, abandoning his time machine would mean Kruger’s men wouldn’t be able to find his location but that was counterintuitive as they’d be unable to get back. Besides, stealing a different time machine wouldn’t give them the advantage of heading into times that Kruger couldn’t reach.

As they walked, Damien could tell that Leïto was finding it hard to not just stop and stare. If he was being honest, the city was having a similar effect on him, just for different reasons. This had been his home. He could have pointed out places he had hung out as a child, as a teen, the restaurants he’d occasionally gone to with coworkers or what few friends he’d kept.

But Damien kept his mouth shut, knowing that a whole swirl of emotion he couldn’t bring himself to feel would come pouring out.

They managed to make it to the building and so far the entire police force hadn’t come down on their heads. However, as they rounded a corner and the Couseil d’Etat appeared before them, Damien could see why. He cursed as he slowed his walk and moved to the side of the flow of people. “We’re going to have to do plan B.”

Around the area they had planned to use to enter into the building were tens of guards and police officers.

Leïto just snorted though, not deterred by the crowd of men. “Shouldn’t be a problem.”

“You’re only happy we get to use your plan. You know, there is a thing called tact, right?” Damien asked. He immediately cursed his own words though as he looked at Leïto’s curious face. He had done that a few times while they were creating their plans, said things that implied he knew Leïto, that they were friends, that they had gotten close enough and known each other long enough that Damien knew the man’s mannerisms and way of thinking.

He was fairly sure that it was at least a little freaky for Leïto but besides an odd look, the man thankfully didn’t say more as he took the lead.

They changed their direction and headed for the main entrance for visitors and tourists. There were less guards there, seeming more prepared for Damien’s typical way of working. He supposed that made having Leïto a positive as they moved forward and walked, shoulders high like they belonged there and they knew what he was doing.

“We’re to open,” muttered Damien as he fiddled with the sleeves of his sweater to make sure the time machine was covered.

“We’re fine,” Leïto responded, certainly seeming more at ease than Damien.

Damien just snorted in response.

Ultimately, they managed to get to the second floor when suddenly an alarm was heard throughout the building.

“Think that’s for us?” asked Leïto with a smirk.

Damien only managed a tired sigh, both amused and annoyed with Leïto’s ease. He didn’t get to do anything more though as the officers that were already in the corridor turned towards them as a description of their appearance went out. Civilians and office workers were immediately moving out of the way as the officers moved forward. Weapons were drawn but no one fired any shots as the alarm carried on to say they were to be taken in alive.

Leïto didn’t give any of the men a chance to speak though as he launched himself at the nearest one. He slid under the man’s arm, grabbed the one holding a gun, and pushed it to the man’s temple. With the attention on Leïto, Damien had several seconds of freedom. There had been no time to state an exact plan to the other but it was clear what Leïto was saying now with his eyes: he would distract them and Damien would have to go get the drive if they had any hope of accomplishing this.

Damien simply nodded in agreement as he swiftly slipped out the nearest window, to quick to know what happened next as he heard a shout and cry of pain. He simply concentrated on his mission at hand, scaling the side of the building as fast as he could, albeit a bit clumsily. Leïto would have been better for this but Damien at least knew how to get the drive out of the computer.

He got into the next story and smoothly walked into Kruger’s office. The secretary recognized him right away and didn’t move a muscle.

“Is he in?” asked Damien, part of him sickened with how much fear his presence simply wrought but knowing now was not the time to think on such things.

She shook her head.

“Good. Sit still and don’t do anything.”

Heading into the room, he didn’t doubt for a second that she’d be calling in reinforcements so he worked quickly, opening up the computer and eventually taking two drives that easily slipped into his pockets. One drive was clearly originally intended for the computer. The other was obviously added on later, making Damien wonder what could be on it.

Hearing noise from outside, Damien quickly rushed to the window, unlocked it, and climbed out and around, looking for the window he had originally climbed out of. As he did, a shot suddenly rang out and Damien found himself barely able to hold on. Guns in his time were far more deadly than the twenty-first century, what with automatic tracking and specialized bullets. Damien didn’t need to look down to know that his right knee cap had just been shattered by one such bullet. It was lucky it had fully passed through though as the detonator inside would have then fully blown off his leg.

Damien continued to move as quickly as possible though now he was down one appendage. His knee screamed at him and he could feel tears prickling at the corner of his eyes. He needed to get to Leïto. Once he got to him he could use the time machine and get them out of there.

However, before he could reach the window he had originally left Leïto at, one closer to him opened up and a man attempted to grab him. Damien didn’t hesitate in pulling the man past him, using the momentum against him. However, it unbalanced himself as well and Damien just barely managed to keep hold of the sill with one hand.

As he tried to regain his hold, a hand suddenly came out, grabbing his shirt and pulling him closer. Damien looked up and felt a darkness curl in his chest. He had known his government was sick but having le président de la République’s bodyguard there only confirmed how alone Damien’s crusade was. It seemed that Damien truly had no friends in his time.

Roland smirked and whispered, “I’ve been waiting a while to do this,” before suddenly shoving him backwards.

With nothing to grab onto, Damien quickly protected himself as best he could as he crashed onto the top of a car. His mind raced as he tried to piece together what it meant. Did that mean Gassman and Kruger didn’t fully see eye to eye? If so, then it might just be easier to take them down. Or did it mean they already had Leïto and didn’t think they needed Damien anymore? Or was it simply Roland being independent, taking an advantage for revenge after Damien made a fool of him last time?

Either way, the fall didn’t actually kill him as he rolled off the top of the crushed car. In a better condition, he could have easily jumped back on his feet and kept fighting. Instead, his right knee continued to scream at him and Damien collapsed onto the ground. It made him realize just how much blood he was losing and how quickly consciousness would leave him if he didn’t tend to it.

But first Leïto. He had to find Leïto.

Damien pushed himself off the ground and looked back towards the building just in time to see Leïto gracefully jump from a window, rolling upon impact with the ground. From where he was, he could see the growing shock on Leïto’s face as he rushed forward, his eyes falling upon the blood that was probably pooling around Damien.

Nevertheless, Damien used his remaining strength to push himself up and meet Leïto halfway, wrapping his arms around him and pressing the needed buttons on the time machine. This time, Damien did not appear calm and unsurprised when ending up in another time. Leïto was completely supporting him and the sudden jolt through time and space coupled with the pain had his stomach turning end over end. Holding on tight, Damien continued to remain conscious as he felt Leïto drag him over and lay him on a bed.

As his eyes finally moved from Leïto, he realized they were back in the hotel. At least it seemed like it. However, he had no idea if they were in the right room or exactly what time they were in. With a quick look at the time machine, he saw that it wasn’t saying much either. He must have fallen on it when Roland had shoved him backwards. It was a miracle that it had worked at all. Still, not knowing exactly where or when they were was a problem that should have worried Damien more. The fact that he wasn’t more worried truthfully was the worst part.

He glanced over and noticed how Leïto was shifting him into a sitting position and he had already torn up parts of the bedding to wrap around Damien’s knee. Rapidly blinking to try and keep awake, Damien managed to get out, “I don’t think I can feel that.”

Leïto’s head whipped up and Damien watched as uncertainty passed over his eyes before shifting to quick and calculating. Like with anything, whether it be a difficult jump or this, Leïto was coming up with the fastest and most successful path. With a hard yank that Damien did feel, Leïto muttered, “That should keep the bleeding at bay for a little bit. I’ll be right back. Grab supplies, find Lola, and anything else. Don’t fall asleep.”

Damien felt that he should tell Leïto he wasn’t even sure what time they were in but it was taking all his strength to simply keep his eyes open. How much blood had he lost?

Watching Leïto go, Damien dug his fingernails into his hands and continued to rapidly blink whenever he felt drowsiness coming. He had to stay awake. Just a little longer.


	9. Help and Tension

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been a horrendous week for America and I am sorry for all Americans and the people of the world that have been let down by the US. I know this is a weird thing to put on the beginning of this chapter but I just want the few people who are reading this to know that despite the hatred in our world right now, I hope my writing can provide some small form of relief and break from reality.
> 
> Put simply, never forget you are important, you matter, and that we will continue to fight the hatred that has become so clear in our world today.

Leïto didn’t have time to think about how many days had passed. Honestly, he was lucky it was only four weeks and not more. For the moment, he had to worry about Damien above all else because if he died they were sitting ducks. However, talking to Lola did raise some questions that hadn’t even crossed Leïto’s mind. He had said ‘yes’ but to be honest, he had no idea if Damien had the hard drive or not.

It was another thing to worry about, knowing that their mission might have been a complete failure, but truthfully Leïto was more concerned with Damien than anything else. Going to the future had simply cemented Leïto’s understanding of the situation and Damien. Besides now seeing what humanity could accomplish and how it needed to be protected, he had also seen how much it pained Damien, being back in a time that must have once felt safe and like home now turned dangerous and unfamiliar. It made Leïto realize how alone Damien was, only increased by the fact that he had come to them for help, him and his sister. Out of all of time, he had felt that he couldn’t trust anyone more than Leïto and Lola and that small action spoke volumes.

For Leïto, he still wasn’t sure if Damien could be considered a friend or not. Going by his own time and excluding the dreams, he had known the man for only a few days. But Damien was important. He knew that and he sure as hell wasn’t going to just let him die.

Hurrying back to the hotel room, thankful that he had left the door propped and even more thankful that it seemed no one was staying in it, Leïto headed over to Damien and the blood soaked bed. He was even paler than before but it seemed like the bleeding had slowed and he hadn’t fallen asleep which was definitely a blessing.

Now for the hard part.

He couldn’t drag Damien into the hall because the hotel’s security cameras would likely catch them and he really didn’t want police coming down on them, questioning why the hell he was dragging a half conscious man with a hole in his leg. That meant going out the window which, thankfully, was on the side where the alley was that Leïto had told his sister to meet them in. It would be easy to hide back there once on the ground but for the moment, it looked like carrying Damien might prove a problem. He was pure muscle but looked like he would be dead weight.

Snapping his fingers in front of Damien’s eyes to get his attention, Leïto asked, “You think you could hold onto me if you had too?”

Damien hesitated and it was difficult to tell if it was due to him putting actual thought in his answer or simply because he was too tired to respond right away. However, he finally gave a small nod and murmured, “Yes.”

“Alright, loop your arms around my neck,” Leïto said as he turned around. He waited until he could feel Damien’s body pressed up against him and then slowly stood up, feeling as Damien tried to keep most of his weight on his good leg.

“This seems like a bad idea,” mumbled Damien, his breath brushing against the back of Leïto’s neck.

Though he hadn’t explained to Damien what exactly was going to happen, he could tell that the man had already picked up enough hints to somehow know they were about to go through the window. Leïto simply snorted in response as he moved forward, guiding and partially supporting Damien as they went across the room.

“Okay, step onto the sill with me,” Leïto ordered.

Damien did as asked, now both of them standing precariously three stories above the ground.

“Okay, whatever you do, don’t let go and try not to choke me to death.” He felt Damien’s weak laugh in response as he carefully pulled both of them around a corner, suddenly clinging to the side of the building. Having prepared himself for a completely limp Damien, having the other man at least somewhat supporting himself with his feet rather than just hanging around Leïto’s neck already made it a million times easier.

Now, Leïto quickly guided Damien downward, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to hold them both forever and that the quicker they were both on solid ground the better. They thankfully made it without slipping and once there, Leïto carefully went about easing Damien to the ground and out of sight of anyone on the main street.

“Lola should be here soon. I’ll be right back,” Leïto assured him before rapidly scaling the building again and climbing into the room. There, he quickly gathered up everything that had blood on it and used a towel to dap up the rest of blood on the thankfully black carpet. It would look suspicious with so many items gone but that was better than looking like a murder scene.

He threw the cloth out the window and then quickly climbed down, gathering everything up again and heading to a trash bin. After reopening a trash bag and shoving the dirty things into it, he closed it up again and threw it into the middle of the pile. Only then did he hurry back to Damien, checking his pulse first before again looking around to see if Lola was there yet or anyone was watching him that shouldn’t be.

Damien’s pulse still beat at a fairly strong rate and it seemed like he hadn’t passed out yet, both good things.

Now forced to wait for Lola’s arrival, Leïto took time to really examine Damien. The man didn’t argue, seeming to focus on just keeping his breathing normal. There only seemed to be the bullet wound and maybe some bruising to Damien’s back. So at least he wasn’t riddled with cuts and scrapes but Leïto couldn’t tell exactly how much blood he’d lost and just how serious that one bullet wound was.

Each second felt like an hour as Leïto waited for anything when he finally heard movement from nearby. Inching around the structure that blocked them from the public, Leïto relaxed upon seeing Lola who quickly ran to him. Hugging her like he’d never see her again was odd as he had seen her only a few hours ago. But Lola had been alone for four weeks and that thought alone hurt Leïto’s heart. Nevertheless, reunions would have to wait as he pulled away and asked, “Were you able to get anything?”

He carefully watched Lola as she took a deep breath and said, “I need the drives.”

“Now?”

“Tao is with me,” Lola replied. “It was the best I could do. They can help Damien but she won’t do it until she has those drives.”

“And is she going to shoot me on sight?” asked Leïto, looking over his sister’s shoulder even though he knew he wouldn’t see anyone.

“We’re at a truce. Trust me.”

Leïto sighed but nodded. He didn’t have time to just sit and debate which bet was best, even if he didn’t know if Damien had the drive. Damien needed help and if Tao was there, then he would take what he could get.

“Alright, have the vehicle get as close as possible to the entrance. I’ll grab Damien. And the drive.”

Lola nodded and rushed off as Leïto ran back to Damien. He practically jumped forward at the sight of him, double checking the pulse and only breathing easily when he knew the man was still alive. It seemed that Damien had finally passed out, his already pale skin completely white as a light sheen of sweat formed on his brow.

Taking up Damien’s limp form, Leïto braced himself as he stood up. The man was pure muscle after all and walking only a few feet was possibly even harder than climbing down the side of a building. He spotted a grey SUV and Lola’s face from the shotgun window and increased his speed tenfold. A door opened and he quickly passed Damien over and jumped in only to come face to tattooed face with Tao.

As per usual, she kept an unfazed, disinterested air about her as she glanced towards Damien who had just been placed in the back seat. She turned back to face Leïto and said, “The drive.”

Leïto gritted his teeth. “He could die.”

“And I don’t care,” Tao replied evenly. “The drive or I dump all three of you back onto the street.”

“His pocket,” Leïto said in return, holding his breath as he watched one of Tao’s men move over to see what they could fine.

The fact that they actually pulled something out had Leïto suddenly breathing easier as he looked at not one but two odd looking drives. The man that had taken it immediately seemed solely focused on it and Leïto wondered if the man was Manual before returning his attention back to Tao. A light form of curiosity had formed in her eyes as she pinched Damien’s cheek. Damien twitched but didn’t wake up.

“You have them meaning you’ll help him now,” Leïto said, his voice a statement even though he knew that Tao’s permission was absolutely necessary.

She glanced over at him, amusement flashing in her eyes before turning back to Damien again. “I’ll help the cutie-pie,” she finally said. “You do have the drives after all.”

Leïto simply nodded as he watched Tao snap her fingers and the man that had been preoccupied looking over the drives was now quickly bringing out equipment to look over Damien.

Other than that, no more questions were asked as the SUV started moving and headed towards Banlieue 13. Leïto kept an eye on Damien at first if only to assure himself that the man wasn’t going to expire then and there before finally turning back to his sister. There was a great deal he needed to tell her and even more that he needed to know but now wasn’t the time. He couldn’t say anything that could suggest the truth around Tao, knowing that bringing the woman into it would lead to far to much difficulty and confusion.

Instead, they continued in silence until Leïto was finally seeing home again. It felt odd driving through B13 knowing what he now knew. Things shouldn’t have looked different but they did.

Once they were at Tao’s place, Leïto found himself at a crossroads though. He didn’t want to leave Damien’s side, especially not while he was unconscious but he also wanted to be there when Manual decoded the drives. However, he still needed to talk to Lola and he couldn’t do that around anyone that might over hear.

After some internal debate, he chose Lola first, knowing he needed to understand what had happened on his sister’s end.

When they were finally alone, Lola hit him first, not to surprising, but then continued on to explain how she’d brokered a deal with Tao. After waiting for ages though, she’d eventually had to come back to B13 and that she’d been covering for Leïto for the past month. Leïto then quickly explained what had happened in the future and why their trip back had probably gotten messed up. After that, Lola added, “I’ll go keep an eye on Manual. You go check on Damien.”

Leïto nodded, incredibly thankful that he could assure himself that Damien was still breathing. He chalked it up to the dreams and adrenaline that was still pumping through his veins as to why he was more worried about Damien than the drives and then pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind as he quickly went back to the room where they were operating on Damien.

The man was still unconscious but color had returned to his cheeks as Leïto watched from afar. Either the woman in charge had already checked everything else or chalked it up to not important as she was solely focused on the leg, having opened it up. She was now carefully extracting tiny pieces of metal as Damien breathed on.

Leïto watched for a while as his heart rate finally seemed to slow down. However, it seemed that he wouldn’t get a break as Tao came up behind him, her eyes narrowed and lips in a thin line.

“I want answers. Now,” Tao said to softly to interrupt the surgery going on in front of them.

“I’m not sure how much I can answer,” murmured Leïto.

“I don’t care. Is this some kind of joke?” hissed Tao. “It’s all make believe! I’m wasting my time on this man for nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. Certainly Lola explained.”

Tao let out a small growl from her throat, either signaling that Lola hadn’t explained or Tao still wasn’t accepting her answers.

“Listen,” Leïto softly replied, “keep helping Damien and he’ll explain what he can. But all that information is real.”

Tao just shook her head. “You’re all insane if you think any of this is worth anything.” However, she didn’t raise a hand to stop the woman treating Damien and they continued to watch in silence.


End file.
